grimmerupnorth

Well, my summer inertia is wearing off so am busy organising an LRC meeting in Hebden Bridge - September 24 - just before Labour Party Conference.

My memories of Manchester United hark back to the glory days when you could watch Best, Charlton et al for 2/6d - 12 pence in today's money. Millions may be still be prepared to stump up about £50 a ticket to fund the coffers of their corporate owners but fair play to the former fans I've just been writing about who formed their own team in protest. FC United is a co-operative which is now only two promotions away from the Football League and a growing army of supporters. You can find out more in the link below. The club features promently, along with former Old Trafford legend Cantona, in Ken Loach's latest film, Looking For Eric.

My thanks to the eminently sensible Bob Piper for the following quote from Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Laura died in the Lockerbie air disaster. I think many will echo the sentiments expressed..........
I am a Christian, so I would hope that, even if I was convinced that Megrahi was guilty, my Christian compassion and forgiveness would extend to wanting to see him die with his family around him in Libya,” he says. “But I am convinced Megrahi is innocent.”
Swire has become a familiar, dignified face in the media as he has posed questions of the lengthy legal process. His thick mane of hair may have grown whiter before our eyes but this Establishment figure — an Eton and Cambridge-educated doctor from Bromsgrove — has never wavered in his determination to know the facts about the bombing that robbed him of his daughter. “It’s not a head on a platter I want, but the truth.”

What happened to the summer? Went out tonight to discard rubbish and the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness definitely upon us.

The above was said of journalist and writer Martha Gellhorn by her husband Ernest Hemingway. I do not agree. I sat up till all hours last night reading Gellhorn's letters spanning 60-odd years I recommend them to anyone in search of late summer holiday reading.

I have been reluctant to blog this week for several reasons. Largely because the story dominating the media all week has been the release of the "Lockerbie bomber" and I am no expert on the matter. But it does seem clear there is an unreasonable amount of hysteria and newspaper headlines screaming over the release of someone who is shortly about to die anyway. Whose guilt is by no means certain. And who is supported both by people who lost loved ones in the 1988 disaster and by veteran campaigners like Tam Dalyell.
Were the case against Megahri cast-iron maybe I would feel differently. It doesn't seem that way. Perhaps the truth will only emerge after his death. But, on balance, I think I support Kenny McAskill's decision. It can not have been easy in the wake of serious pressure from the US Government and Downing Street. I doubt anyone would make such a decision lightly and for once a senior politician is listening ot the voice of reason, not the mob. Who, like me, are not in possession of all the facts. But seem to feel entitled to condemn anyway.

At the beginning of this year I had (in retrospect naive) aspirations to be a Parliamentary candidate for Keighley. Then Calder Valley. I think I could have done a good job. But I didn't win.
A note to anyone thinking of throwing their hats in the ring in any Parliamentary selection for Labour. At the current time, if you are on the left, it is a Herculean and I have to say well nigh impossible task.That may change . I hope so.
The current reality is that the current PLP has only 12 per cent MPs who are not aligned to New Labour - and that's going to reduce at the next election.
I am informed that Michael Meacher is setting up an "informal Parliamentary panel" of those of more independent spirit so anyone out there who wants to break the mould might want to get in touch. Though, speaking frankly, until we break the stranglehold the right-wing union bureaucrats have on the selections then it will still be an uphill struggle. But I wish anyone who wishes to engage with it all the best.
Today, I had an e-mail from a friend in the LRC who has the most excellent of credentials in London as a councillor and who went for a vacant constituency. He didn't get it, but got a respectable share of the vote. In an ideal world, he would have walked it as he is a formidable economist, clever, personable, but unfortunately of the left. So he didn't win.
I remain optimistic. There are no quick solutions or fixes. But as long as we have the best policies and the best candidates then it's worth hanging on in there. In the meantime, we do our very damndest to campaign for the left Labour MPs at risk in 2010 and try not to lose heart. It is very difficult I agree.
With the collapse of my own Parliamentary hopes, I have a twin-pronged strategy. I'm getting more involved in local matters and tonight attended a meeting of the Hebden Royd Partnership, of which I've become a (non-paid) Director
I joined the steering group of a would-be housing co-op and will continue to be involved in intitiatives in Calderdale to improve investment, involve people and make sure our town doesn't die in the midst of the recession.
I've also spent the last two weeks cataloguing over 300 books, mostly my own, and can now be found most days replenishing stocks scouring charity shops in search of gems to sell on the internet. As a lifelong bibliophile, I have discovered I have a knack for it. A friend compared me to a dowser who can find water in the desert. We will see,
The plan is this will enable me to survive , continue bits of journalism, and be politically involved. Anyway, look on the bright side.
Unlike others who face a night of uncertainty at the General Election, I know precisely what I will be doing. At Manchester Town Hall covering the results for ITN and the Press Association........for the fourth time since 1997

Blogs are not popular with Labour Party apparatchiks. And it seems that if you're privileged enough to be on the NEC you are not supposed to blog at all.....not even if you are the eminently reasonable and scrupulous Peter Kenyon who for many years has pursued a dogged path to make the Labour Party more open, transparent and attractive to new members. I applaud his honesty, his blog and wish him well in future NEC endeavours. Despite political differences, he has always been very supportive of my own concerns over Party democracy and we worked together for several years in Save The Labour Party. If only all NEC members had his admirable resilience, as Tribune reports........

http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2009/08/14/if-i’m-in-the-dock-what-are-the-charges/

http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2009/08/06/embrace-financial-openness-or-face-annihilation-labour-leadership-is-told/

It's heartening to note the level of public anger at the lies and distortions being spread in the US about our much-maligned NHS. Like many of you I expect, I've done the Facebook poll bit and delighted to see the Tories exposed in today's Observer as the would-be destroyers of our healthcare system.

Trade unions UNISON and UNITE, whose mmebers make up the vast majority of NHS employees, have launched a new campaign so yes let's all rally round and use this moment in time for a re-stating of the case for the NHS.

But we need to go further. At the forthcoming Labour Party Conference, union leaders and grassroots members need to re-state their opposition to private sector companies winning fat contracts and it's also time to argue for an end to the profiteering of the private drug companies. Yes I love the NHS. I would love it much more if Gordon Brown and Andy Burnham turned their backs on the privatisations which have been so fiercely opposed in recent years by those on the frontline.

Well done to all who turned out to protest at the BNP's annual hate-fest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/8201022.stm

OK, I admit to being incensed after seeing various people who probably think we're all "Commies" traduce the NHS on US television. But, speaking as someone with the rare privilege of being given the last rites when I was born two months premature in 1957 ( then a serious matter) , I can safely say I literally owe my life to the NHS. And to see Republican politicians wrangling in America about something as basic as National Insurance and telling fibs about the NHS is a stark reminder just how lucky we are to get our healthcare free from the cradle to the grave. Still.
My 89-year-old dad's been in and out of hospital in the past 12 months and is monitored and looked after in a way which isn't perfect, but he's still here. ECGs, CT scans, all manner of procedures which would cost thousands and thousands of pounds in other places. Thousands he just does not have. I'd like to thank the NHS for that. And for looking after many other loved ones, friends and family. Millions I'm sure feel the same. And millions are looking on in disbelief as America argues and distorts the truth.

You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the predicament Alan Duncan is in following an expose by an activist. Fair play to Heydon Prowse for revealing to the world the MP's true thoughts on the expenses ' scandal.

Last night I met a man in the pub who claimed he could conjure up the Devil ( this kind of thing happens in Hebden Bridge). All I know is I have had a hell of a day.
Spent significant time today wrangling with a debt recovery agency who had mistakenly got on my case after the Post Office screwed up and mistakenly passed on my account - which I had paid in full. Today, a threatening letter warning of bailiffs and legal action for a phone bill sorted out in July.
Fortunately, my irate phone calls have resulted in some financial compensation and profuse apologies. But the attitude of the agency was of course that I was lying .
After my anger had died down, I could not help thinking of the fear which must accompany these letters for people who are not a mistake on the list, who can't pay the bills. And why is the Post Office handing over relatively piffling amounts to sharks whose business is to scare and intimidate.
Today, we learned that unemployment is at its highest for 15 years. Young people were protesting outside Job Centres inYorkshire and they are right to ask why isn't more being done when the Government has spent billions bailing out the banks so they can continue with their bonus culture. Months ago, we should have held the City to account. And properly nationalised the finance industry and held it to account

I have always read voraciously and currently I'm consuming at least half a dozen books a week - my addictive habit is fuelled thanks to the kind auspices of Oxfam whose volunteers ( here at any rate) get the wonderful perk of being able to read any book that comes in as long as they are returned. So, although it's entirely random, my bibliophilia results in some unexpected treats.
I've just finished the excellent Below The Breadline, written by journalist Fran Abrams and published in 2002 . Much in the spirit of George Orwell, Guardian writer Abrams spent three months living in various locations in the UK actually trying to survive on the Minimum Wage.
Her conclusion - that you can't - is probably more the case now than it was then.
Time and inflation has eroded its value and, as she points out, the original conception of a Minimum Wage as a Living Wage is very far from the reality for millions of people.
Living on cheap pasta and pesto for a week, holed up in grisly lodgings, includng a caravan site in Doncaster, Abrams knew her miserable existence was but a short-term option. But she writes unpatronisingly and with humour and empathy of the way in which agency workers, immigrants and those famous "hard working families" are exploited and ripped off mercilessly by employers finding a way round the legislation which promised so much.
My other read of the week has been Suite Francaise, by Russian/Jewish emigre Irene Nemirovsky. An absolutely wonderful novel about wartime France written by someone who died in Auschwitz only a year after the book ends with the Germans occupying her adopted country. I recommend both.

I want to make it clear I would never condone the behaviour of whoever slashed Hazel Blears's car tyres. Such behaviour is counter-productive and also extremely frightening for whoever is at the receiving end. But to pretend, as Blears has done, it is just the behaviour of disaffected kids is equally wrong and not facing up to reality.
The fact is that Hazel Blears has lost the respect of many of her constituents, and that she should have been hauled in along with other Ministers to explain their conduct and, if necessary, face the consequences.
I think the public perception is that waving cheques around for £13,000 , the sum she avoided Capital Gains Tax by via an expenses scam , is too little too late and hardly likely to endear her to anyone struggling on a low income and wondering why an MP they invested faith in has let them down so badly.
Rule 1 for MPs. Never lose touch with the people who vote for you.
If you hang out with rich people, live a lifestyle vastly removed from the day-to-day experience of your voters, then don't be too surprised when people get angry.
Salford CLP , in my opinion, should have passed a vote of no confidence in Blears and elected someone who would have credibility with the electorate.

The fact that Peter Mandelson is living it up in the lap of luxury with a member of the Rothschild family comes as no surprise does it. If you are "intensely relaxed" about the filthy rich then no doubt they are also your holiday companions of choice. Much in the great tradition of Ramsay MacDonald, who also liked consorting with the toffs.
With the summer's political hiatus in full flood, I'm in the process of helping organise a few things for September including a one-day Convention Of the Left in Brighton the day before the start of Labour Party Conference.
Thanks to the 45 or so people who turned up to support our fund-raising Labour Party curry night at the Trades Club. Proceeds will go to boost local election campaign funds and also pay for our Branch's affiliation to the LRC. Apologies to those left with rather pitiful portions after the serious troughers helped themselves rather too freely. Next time, comrades, portion control!
Meanwhile, I'm thoroughly enjoying cataloguing my books for sale and coming across mementoes of long past political events , people I don't know any more, and other stuff which is a harsh reminder of how short life is - and that we're just passing through.
Which is why I suppose that sorting things out and preparing to offload many of the volumes I have collected over the years seems like a positive thing to do. I don't need most of them.
The books I will resolutely hang onto are probably the tattiest, most-thumbed, and those given to me by friends and family.
Yesterday I came across a paperback copy of A Cellarful Of Noise - Brian Epstein's memoir about The Beatles.
The book is an irreplaceable memory of someone whose teenage devotion to the Fab Four shaped my childhood . Not many five-year-olds got to sit through A Hard Day's Night five times ( whether they liked it or not) or learn by heart the songs and words of Lennon and McCartney. Cellarful Of Noise is worth a lot of money. But it won't be up for sale. I treasure the book because my sister Geraldine died 10 years ago today at the age of 51 - and there are some things in life which are priceless. And as far as I'm concerned, most of them have very little to do with cash.

I could not leave the house without making a comment about the bad joke that was the "military historian" on Channel 4 News. Gordon Corrigan sounded and looked like a cross between Terry Thomas in a 1950's Ealing Comedy and Stephen Fry in Blackadder Goes Forth. His bizarreview seemed to be that most Tommies spent more time having a joke and a laugh and playing football with their mates than facing the firing line. I would love to know what Harry Patch would have made of such "informed" views but all I know is that I would not be sitting here unless my grandfathers had also been among the lucky ones alongside to survive the carnage which destroyed a generation. We owe all of them, now that they are gone, a great debt of gratitude. Rest in peace, Harry

Due to the current malaise in print media, this journalist is turning internet bookseller pro tem and busy cataloguing books which do not have a special place in my heart . A gruelling task made light by finds like an old hardback I bought in Harlesden about 1983 which is worth £50.00. Have also just been laughing at Electric Ink, radio comedy which catalogues current situation in said media with home truths and humour.Robert Lindsay splendid as hardened hack coping with dumbing down of digital age.
Current book-trawling operation means political comments are likely to be sparse but I will be posting noticeboard stuff and info. Now off to curry night to rally our local Labour Party......

The point of political blogging is to tell the truth. Comfortable or otherwise. And, when you can no longer do that, then maybe it is time to stop.
The reason I'm at my computer at such an ungodly hour is because I was daft enough to read a book about a woman being stalked. And now I can't get to sleep.
I'm pondering the fact that when I started this blog it was in a spirit of optimism and also in the hope I could say what I thought and that people could agree, or otherwise, and engage in a way which recognised I wished to write with some irreverence and humour. Maybe sometimes I was OTT and, in hindsight, maybe I would have said certain things differently. But behind it all was a belief in the Labour Party as still the only place where socialists should be.
I was reinforced in that view as, in my Branch, I was surrounded by people whose only wish was to retain this seat at the next election and see a Labour Government sympathetic to the policies we'd supported over many years. It did not seem that awesome a task. Or objectionable as an ideal.
Since 2007, our hopes have been gradually eroded to the point where it seems impossible to tell it like it is - because the truth I'm afraid is that this constituency has been torn apart by a bitter selection battle which means this blog is of course read by people who also blogged malicious comments and briefed the media with disparaging remarks about our former PPC, and who ultimately succeeded in their bid to displace her on grounds so trivial in the light of the MP's expenses scandal and other events that the NEC should hang its head in shame.
Some months ago, a senior member of the NEC acknowledged to me in a private conversation they had probably got it wrong. And actually suggested that those who could not stomach the injustice of what had happened should go and campaign elsewhere. I suspect that, at the next General Election, that is what many will do. Others, I'm sad to say, have simply left the Party in disgust.
And to suggest, as someone did in the local media the other day , that that is not the case is disingenuous and insulting.
The campaign against the left in Calder Valley continues to be waged by those who presumably prefer the current state of schism to what we had before. A CLP which flourished and worked hard - despite the ideological differences - in a spirit of co-operation with our MP Chris McCafferty. Where we are now is not where any CLP would like to be. I hope that will change.
In terms of the blog, I had to impose comment moderation and then stop anonymous remarks as the stream of offensive remarks became unsustainable. I'm still of course getting the remarks by idiots calling themselves things like "Barack Obama." But by now of course I recognise the style or, should I say, lack of it. It is the very same people who used to post anonymously.
All of which is to say I'm suppose that maybe the toxicity round here is such that I might stop blogging for a bit. At least about local stuff. And concentrate, instead, on the very difficult task of persuading those I respect and value that it's still worth hanging on in there. Thoughts which I will be articulating at our fund-raising event on Thursday night.

I knew it. In the great tradition of Jacobean tragedy, and Shakespeare, here comes the Mandy show.

Having had personal experience of two Parliamentary shortlists comprising women-only, my view of politics and gender is rather different to Harriet Harman's. However well-intended, I remain ambivalent at best about AWS .
And, at the risk of enraging many of my sisters, I must say I utterly disagree with Harman's view that dual gender leaderships should be the status quo.
Why? Because I have always thought that selection by ability, rather than sex, should be the benchmark for any would-be Parliamentarian. And , above all, political principles.
At the hustings for Calder Valley, I was asked who my political heroes were. I included Ellen Wilkinson, Alice Mahon and Barbara Castle in that list. I also mentioned Tony Benn, and Aneurin Bevan. Socialists of both sexes who I admired for different reasons. Their gender was not an issue.
John Prescott was right to say Harman's latest pronouncement is a distraction And her profoundly uncaring remarks about Gary McKinnon, facing 60 years being banged up in the US, are a disgrace.

I have spent the past few days worrying I might have swine flu. I don't think I have as it happens but it's certainly been a pig of a summer. Rain for four weeks solid in Hebden Bridge with no sign of a let-up and my commiserations to the Hebden Bridge cricket club whose annual bash was rained off for the second Saturday in a row.
I spent most of today, not perusing the papers from my sickbed, but ploughing through my considerable book collection deciding which ones might be sale-able on ABE books and listing them on a database. As I have hundreds of books I will never read again, and spend a lot of my time mooching round HB's many charity shops it seems a worthwhile venture. And far more profitable than churning out film and book reviews for Ciao, as my nephew advised with the best of intentions, with the splendid result I've earned less than £3 in three weeks ( average payment is about 10pence per review) from my labours.
Still, it's all a bit of a learning curve. And things, as someone once reckoned, can only get better.